"From the age of six to fourteen I took violin lessons but had no luck with my teachers, for whom music did not transcend mechanical practicing. I really began to learn only after I had fallen in love with Mozart’s sonatas. The attempt to reproduce their singular grace compelled me to improve my technique. I believe, on the whole, that love is a better teacher than sense of duty."
-Albert Einstein
Emerald
Emerald
is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured in
anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust. She
serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator
for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW), and she selects and posts the
monthly inspirational quote on the MFRW Marketing Blog. Find out more
about her at her website, The Green Light District.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Creating Solid Blog Content. #MFRWorg Talks Memes.
Blog Content can be a challenge for authors. It's important to post with some regularity but coming up with new ideas for your posts can pose a challenge. Why not participate in a blog meme? It gives you a weekly blog feature with the benefit of a group of people interested in the mutual success of your blogs.
Blog Memes
Memes are weekly blog features posted across multiple blogs centered on a common theme. A blogger can choose weekly to participate so if you need a break, you take a week off. One of the most recognized memes was Six Sentence Sunday. The organizers discontinued it - it grew huge - but several off-shoots have now taken root in the blogging community. There is power behind a group and memes are driven by the group.
Sexy Snippets
In Sexy Snippets, participants select seven sentences from a WIP or published manuscript. This gives you the chance to feature a piece of your work, along with a short book promo weekly. See a sample of my Sexy Snippets. This meme operates out of a facebook group. You can sign up weekly at the Nuthouse Scribbler's website. The heat level in this meme runs across the board from sweet to spicy. As a participant, you are encouraged to read and comment on as many others as possible.
Tantalizing Tuesdays
Participants select a photo of their choice and write an original 200-word story to post every Tuesday. It's an awesome way to keep your writing sharp because telling a story in 200-words is not always as easy as it sounds. See a sample of my Tantalizing Tuesday post. This meme operates out of a facebook group where you can sign up weekly and also has a website. Erotic Authors will be most comfortable with this group. A special note about this group is that as a participant, you're expected to read and comment on the other stories - they extend you the same courtesy. Hey, it's guaranteed blog traffic!
Blog Memes
Memes are weekly blog features posted across multiple blogs centered on a common theme. A blogger can choose weekly to participate so if you need a break, you take a week off. One of the most recognized memes was Six Sentence Sunday. The organizers discontinued it - it grew huge - but several off-shoots have now taken root in the blogging community. There is power behind a group and memes are driven by the group.
Sexy Snippets
In Sexy Snippets, participants select seven sentences from a WIP or published manuscript. This gives you the chance to feature a piece of your work, along with a short book promo weekly. See a sample of my Sexy Snippets. This meme operates out of a facebook group. You can sign up weekly at the Nuthouse Scribbler's website. The heat level in this meme runs across the board from sweet to spicy. As a participant, you are encouraged to read and comment on as many others as possible.
Tantalizing Tuesdays
Participants select a photo of their choice and write an original 200-word story to post every Tuesday. It's an awesome way to keep your writing sharp because telling a story in 200-words is not always as easy as it sounds. See a sample of my Tantalizing Tuesday post. This meme operates out of a facebook group where you can sign up weekly and also has a website. Erotic Authors will be most comfortable with this group. A special note about this group is that as a participant, you're expected to read and comment on the other stories - they extend you the same courtesy. Hey, it's guaranteed blog traffic!
Thursday 13
This meme is not exclusive to authors. But it's easy and can be fun if you get creative. Participants simply post a list of any 13 things. You include your link on the group's website and others will pop around from blog to blog reading the lists. Here's a sample of one of my more creative Thursday 13 posts. I've hosted other authors as guests for this feature. I've also posted 13 sentences from one of my books, listed 13 character names, quotes, super heroes, chick flicks, romantic places, etc, etc... the list is endless and can always be used in a way to promo your writing. MFRW uses this feature on our Author's blog!
This meme is fun and promoted on the MFRW Yahoo group. It also allows authors to post the longest excerpt. Participants post 6 paragraphs (no more, no less) from either a WIP or a published work. It's every Sunday, open to both unpublished and published authors. Just sign up at their website and include the link code in your post so readers can hop around from blog to blog.
This is MFRW's own weekly meme. MFRW authors are invited to participate by signing up on our blog each week. It's a chance to hook readers on your current WIP or any previously published book. Then you include the link code in your post and readers will have the chance to jump from one author to another. FIND MORE DETAILS HERE.
So... Do You Meme? Share other memes you like.
Paloma Beck is a Romance Author living a life of contradiction... she's a happily married carpooling mom writing erotic romance. It's almost naughty! Paloma writes full-time and has three series in the works with others on the fringes. Her books span both the contemporary and paranormal romance genres.
Paloma serves as MFRW's Blog Director.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
#MFRWorg Newbie's World: Why Authors Need Facebook @AuthorErinMoore
Facebook: Why we need it, even if it drives us crazy.
Facebook. It’s awesome for our personal lives, letting us
share pictures with others, keep up with our schools and communities, find
people with common interests, stalk our ex-boyfriends…oh, wait.
But as an author, it can sometimes be a little daunting and
confusing. For starters, what type of page should we choose? And then, once we
have it, how do we go about liking other pages – some pages wants us to switch
back to our “personal” page before we can like them, and I am not entirely sure
I want everyone to know when I’ve liked something like “Sex With Romance.” And once we’ve figured that out, how do we get
those cool little tabbies for our blogs and other stuff on there?
And yet, it’s worth it to figure it out. Most of our readers
are on Facebook, and Facebook also brings in new readers; a lot of inbound
traffic to Amazon and other ebook sites comes
directly from Facebook. So we need to be on there, and we need to be on
there in a professional manner.
As some of you already know, I’m a big fan of “do as I say,
not as I do” on this blog. So some of the advice below will be recommendations
from knowledgeable sources that I may or may not have already implemented
myself (just in case anyone is checking my Facebook page –which, if you do,
make sure to like it).
Ahem. Now, first things first: What type of page should you have? Well, really, as an author, there is really
only one for your author self. I will
put gold stars there in case you are in doubt. And you will need to start from your personal
profile in order to do this – don’t create a whole new page (with a separate
email address) from the initial FB log-in page. Main reason: you can’t usually like another
page as your author page, otherwise.
Types of pages:
Local Business or Place
Company, Organization, or Institution
Brand or Product
Artist, Band, or Public Figure
Entertainment
Cause or Community
Adding a page for
individual books:
If you are already sort of big time, you may want to
consider adding pages for each of your books. The downside to this is that you may
split your audience – people may miss updates if you post to the book, or miss
them if you post only to your author page. However, if the book does blow up
(in a good way), someone may make that page for you, and you don’t necessarily
want to cede that control. Food for
thought.
Now, onto the fun
(read: complicated) stuff.
Yes, you can like other authors’ pages. You may have to go
to their page and then click on the down-arrow near the like button. Then there
should be a line that says “like as my page.” That’s it! But it seems that most
authors have gotten with the program – if it’s set up as an author page, then
you should be able to like it with the “like” button.
Help with Facebook
Tabbies (aka apps, aka sort of a pain);
So, most of us would like our blogs to be linked to
Facebook. The best way is to use an app – you know, those cute little buttons.
There are a few different apps to use for blogs: RSS Graffiti, Networked Blogs (though this
will now direct you to their spin-off, Symphony), and Social RSS.
They all work essentially the same way. They are going to
ask you for a lot of permissions from Facebook (you can’t escape The Man), and
then import your blog (or blogs) to the pages you direct. I used Symphony and
found it pretty self-explanatory. And then I got this awesome new tab called
“blog” on my page. It will also post
updates to my FB newsfeed any time I post on my blog.
What else do you need as an app? You can also load in Goodreads,
Pinterest, or Youtube videos – entirely up to you. Goodreads is an easy one – you can do it from
Goodreads, and then it magically loads the app onto FB.
For Pinterest, it’s a a little bit trickier. If you use the
link here,
then only follow steps through #7 – looks like Facebook has had a few changes
since 2012 (ya’ think?) and it loads up a little “Pinterest” link fairly nicely
with only the first seven.
YouTube: There is either Woobox
(which I used for my Pinterest tab, very helpful) or YoutubeApp. Again, make
sure to accept all permissions and then edit later.
All in all, Facebook for businesses is not necessarily a
walk in the park, but with a little bit of help, it can (and should) be done.
Happy Facebooking! Let me know what you think – what do you see on others’
pages and wish you had on yours? What has worked well for you?
-Erin
Just in case you want more to read:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Post Labels
Advertising
Artwork for Newsletters
Audience
Author promo
author tips
Barbara Bradley
Blog Challenge
blogging
BlogTalk Radio
Blurbs
book covers
book sales
branding
coaching
conferences
critique groups
Dialogue
Editing
Emerald
EPIC
Erin Moore
facebook
goodreads
group moderation
guest blogging
Inspiration
Interviews
IrfanView
Issuu.com
Jill Blake
kayelle allen
Kris Bock
Level-Up
Marketing for Romance Writers
marketing tips
mfrw
MFRW Newsletter
MFRWorg
mona karel
Monique DeVere
NaNoWriMo
new authors
Newbie's World
Newsletters
niche marketing
Nicole Morgan
Paloma Beck
pinterest
pitches
Preditors & Editors Readers' Poll Awards
prioritizing
promo tips
promotions
publishing
Quotes
Retweet Day
Rochelle Weber
social marketing
social media
Staff Post
street team
Submission Forms
summer camp
The Writing Process
time management
Tina Gayle
Triberr
twitter
Victoria Pinder
W. Lynn Chantale
workshop
writer tips
Writing Romance
Writing Tips
WWoW